Patch 7.0 (Hooray?)

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Welp, Patch 7.0 happened…

The good

(1) Seasons changes

The weekly seasons changes are great!  They allow me to get most of it done, around my schedule.  Most of the time, it’s pretty flexible.  Things like “get x number of syndicate plans” can be done in a variety of ways.  A few crafting items too.  A+ on that one.  I just got my very own imp fleet stronghold and am saving up for the pub version.  Not too long, I think.

(2) Combat styles and loadouts

Obviously what’s not to love about dual spec.  OR 10-spec as the case may be.

In general, I’m having a bit of indecision because I’m kind of afraid to screw up my favorite toons.  What if my secondary style gets nerfed into oblivion or becomes something I like less?  Guides aren’t even available for half the styles.  So… I’m leveling alts I don’t care about to try it out.  Dumb, I know.

A small gripe about loadouts

Restrictions on switching in groupfinder queue SUCK.  One of the things I was looking forward to is to do missions in dps spec while I waited for my heal-fp queue to pop.  Nope, gotta sit in heal spec until it pops.  Boooo, I say.  In addition, it is still possible to queue as “heal/dps” but then if it slots you in as heals, you can’t actually switch to your heal spec.  That is very very dumb.

The bad

(1) Story too short

Very short.  Enough said on that.

(2) Must start story from Ossus

I have a bunch of lvl 75s.  Some have been leveled using the story.  Some ran flashpoints.  But the closest to legacy of the sith content I can get is starting from Ossus (which gives almost no xp to a level 75).  Then Onderon.  Then Mek-Sha.  Repeat.  I’m dying of boredom here.  By the time I get to Legacy of the Sith, I’m at 80 and don’t care.

(3) The Class Nerfs

I’m not happy about having what I consider to be must-haves behind a choice wall.

Scoundrel crotch kick is no longer baseline.  I can’t spec into it because I need to spec into “clever surrender” which makes my dodge drop threat.  And the reason I need to do THAT is because they removed my threat drop!  A healer that can’t drop threat is a dead healer.  And disappearing act has a depressingly long cooldown.  Without crotch kick, I have limited options for hard stun, depending on whether the mob is a basic or higher level (thermal grenade, flash grenade – which is also behind a choice wall).  Hard stuns are kind of important for some mechanics…

Commando hold the line also no longer baseline, and there is no longer an option to make it speedier.  This means that the only effective way to get out of the bad is booty scoot.  I fully admit it is my own incompetence that makes this a huge problem.  I need my speed boost to go forward.  No matter how much I practice with swiveling the camera and tapping and all that bullshit, I run into walls or off cliffs.  No thank you.

There are many more things.  I’m too annoyed to list them.  You’d be too annoyed to read my long list.

What do you think about the changes?

Manaan Natural History Museum

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The theme behind the one is a natural history museum.  I saw the upstairs, saw the Krayt Skeleton, and had to have it.  Everything was built around that.  There’s a petting zoo and a planetarium.  It really came together during this most recent furniture sale when I could buy snow globes (ecosystems) and luxury loveseats for the planetarium.

This stronghold is decorated to 50 percent and it’s DONE.  Trust me, you don’t need to get Manaan to 100 percent if you’re satisfied with how it looks.  The quest for 100 percent can lead to clutter (dark side, totally).

Main Level

Outside

ticket booth

Bad Decorating

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I have been touring other people’s strongholds lately to unabashedly steal ideas.  Most of the time, the ideas are bad.  I’m sorely tempted to create a hall of shame for decor, except it seems much more rude than mocking outfits.  People appear in public in bad outfits, that’s on them.  But they publicly listed their strongholds, and it seems like a dick move to roam around, take pix, and then post them for all to see.  Oh well.

Though the pictures may be lacking, I still must protest some of the most egregious offenders!

Everything is on FIRE

Fun fact, when you put too many fire/animated decos in one place, my computer becomes choppy and tries to die.  I will not be seeing your decorating brilliance as I make a hasty exit before the fire extinguisher in my IRL house is needed.

More Money Than Sense

I don’t care that the Zakuul lounge is super pricey.  If you put one in a stupid spot, it’s still stupid.  If you put 10 of them in a room, it still looks unimaginative.

Sometimes, You Don’t Need A Bar

Just Because There is a Hook…

Just because a hook is there doesn’t mean you must use that hook.  It is ok to leave a hook blank and have floor space. Sometimes the hooks are in dumb places.

Gratuitous 100% Completion

If you happen to hit 100%, great, proud of you.  But when I come into a house to see all the crafting plants strewn around and 500 guards to hit the hook cap, I die a little inside.  Don’t do it!

Down The Decorating Rabbit Hole

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So it’s been a while… because I’ve been decorating.  Previously I focused on fashion for good reason — if I focused on something else as crazily as fashion, there’d be no room for anything else.  For the longest time I had one lonely stronghold that I lazily decorated, but

The stronghold bonus is a gateway drug.  Just unlock them, they said.  You can leave them empty, they said.

So I unlocked them ALL.  I learned I definitely cannot just leave an empty stronghold.  For the last six months I FUSSED.  I started out with crafting and rep decos and then transitioned to buying cartel items from the GTN when I finally had cash.  Always Be Upgrading!

This is boring, on to the pictures!  The most “done” of my strongholds (that’s a lie, they’re never done) is the Kaas City one.  The theme behind this one is a military outpost for imperial intelligence, for briefings, meetings, and whatnot.

Note, I’ve tried to bring decent lighting to my strongholds so none of these images have been retouched.

Front entry

Just a boring front office, nothing to see, definitely not a secret military installation, carry on.

 

Decorating On A Budget

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I had avoided getting an additional stronghold beyond the Nar Shaddaa one (which I had obtained for free by being subscribed during the relevant period, years and years ago) because I just knew that I’d fall down the rabbit hole of decorating.  I used the nightlife event to buy various cantina-themed items and was basically satisfied with my sparse den of sin.

But then I gave in and bought another stronghold because of the bonuses strongholds give to conquest.  And by “another stronghold” I mean seven more.  I told myself I’d just unlock the rooms, use the bonus, and be done with it.  But I obviously fell down the rabbit hole.

Now, I don’t have a ton of cash – not a lot of credits, not a lot of cartel coins.  I can buy everything I need, but not everything I want.  When the newest fashion comes out, I stalk it on the GTN until the price becomes reasonable.  Decos are worse – you always need multiple copies.

For that reason, I turned to Tor-Decorating and the list of decos by source, particularly non-cartel sources.

Here are my current favorites (color coded by level of annoyance to me).

Onderon (Vendor)

Most items other than taxidermy stuff (yech) can be bought for credits by a newcomer.  You don’t have to have even started the onslaught quest line.  Just drive over there on your spaceship and pick up some items.  I like the hunter’s rug and the blooming tree.

Mek-Sha (Vendor)

You have to use a toon that has done the mek-sha story line (or at least gotten to Mek-sha in the story?) and then complete a small quest line to access the vendor.  Pretty easy and it unlocks about 6 purchasable-for-credits items that look piratey enough for a Tat or Rishi stronghold.

Fleet Starfighter And PVP Vendor

You don’t need special tokens, just cash, for some of the decorations from this vendor.  Of particular interest: Makeb Pergola, Makeb Canopy.

Ossus (Vendors)

There are two vendors of note on Ossus, one of which is very, very annoying.

Vendor 1 (planetary vendor) takes Tech fragments and doesn’t require rep.  I am unsure whether you need to have completed the Ossus story to access this vendor.  However, if you are flush with tech fragments and want some Yavin-appropriate decos, this is the way to do it.  You can also buy as many torches and columns as you want, which comes in handy.

Vendor 2 (rep vendor) takes credits + Ossus fragments which are gained by doing dailies.  You cannot access the Ossus dailies without having done the story (not sure how much of the story you have to do).  The Ossus fragments stay with the toon that earned them, and are not legacy currency (this is annoying).  At least the pub and imp side rep, while called different things, is actually the same rep pool, so it does not matter which side you quest on.

These decos are primarily good for the Yavin temple.  There are also Republic and Imperial soldier disguise terminals.  I love disguise terminals, so I will continue to farm this annoying rep.

A Traitor Among The Chiss (Flashpoint)

For House Inrokini!

This flashpoint boasts 12 decorations, and one drops off each boss, including the bonus boss, in solo mode.  Stealth is mandatory due to the volume of trash.  I use my shadow with a dinky lvl 10 companion and can kill everything without heroic moment or kolto stations.  Takes about 15 minutes, most of which is walking in stealth past trash.

Decorations include pretty fountains, an enormous bar that can be used on a centerpiece slot, and various resort-themed lighting and plants.  I have used items from here in just about every stronghold.  The fountains are great for Alderaan.

Nathema (Flashpoint)

Similar to House Inrokini: use stealth, a drop off every boss, 20 decos in all. There are 6 deco-bosses if you count the two mini bosses (those two zealots hanging out together.

In my opinion the fp is more difficult than inrokini and takes more time – and I find the decos less desirable.

Star Fortress (Flashpoint)

A deco drops off each boss/paladin, even in solo mode (4 decos).   It is stupid easy in solo mode.  Stealth is optional – every time you open a door it breaks you out of stealth which is annoying and slow.  I tend to roflstomp it with my guardian.  I could see a commando or other strong aoe class also dominating it.

There are 23 decos in all!  Decorations are mostly tech-based.  This is how I intend to decorate my Rishi air balloon.

CAUTIONARY NOTE: Spirit of Vengeance and Secrets of the Enclave have tasty looking decos but they are not a guaranteed drop, even in veteran or master mode.  You could kill all the bosses and walk away with one or zero decos.  Boooo.  That is why they are not included in this list.

Aaaand that’s my list. Come by Halleli’s Hideout on Star Forge to check out my Nar Shaddaa den of iniquity.

Behold the Magneto Hat

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

Yes, I know, I’ve been a posting slacker.  No apologies, been playing, not posting about playing.  Also been making awesome outfits!  Today we are going to talk about my magneto hat. It goes with all things gold and keeps the sun off baldy’s pale, pale scalp.

Patient defender hat
Noble Councillor’s set (with dynamic paladin pants)
Lucien Draay’s set (dark red/black dye, maybe deep red/black)
Hallowed gothic set (black/deep red dye)

For some of these I had to individually dye the hat (primary color, no secondary, so black/whatever).  Totally worth it.  You may now be jelly.

Consular Crew Party

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

After months away, I come back, and realize that I haven’t finished all my consular companion quests yet.  Fortunately, the only one who matters is Qyzen, because you have to schlep somewhere.  Everyone else can be talked to on ship.  My quest log says Qyzen wants to go to Tatooine (or Taris, somewhere), so I get to the spaceport, summon him and…

What the HELL, dude!  Why are you in your panties in the spaceport?

I quickly pulled some gear out of my collections for Qyzen’s dignity and moved on to addressing the rest of my crew on the ship.

Pants?
Where pants?
Maybe they’re in the conference room.
Or the medbay?

What have they been doing while I was gone?

I will leave you now with the fun thought that in my stronghold, almost every day there is a random naked companion bugged out in there.

Bad Fashion, Little Jedi Edition

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

She learns so quickly!

I didn’t cleanse you because my button stuck

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

No, seriously, the cleanse button on my naga is sticking. So I used compressed air and it works… most of the time.

The next day, it was prime day. And what do I see? Razer peripherals up to 50% off…

We all know what happened next:

Shiny

Well except I saved so much money that I had to pick up one of these:

Pretty colors!

So um yeah, shut up, I’m stuck in this house and I deserve shinies.

Shocked By Little Jedi’s Choices

Hawtpants of the Old Republic Posted on by

The impossible has happened. Little Jedi is tanking on her Assassin (she is a big fan of stealth classes). And she likes it!

We all already know she’s good at it. She is my spawn, after all.

She runs in there screaming “Hey I’m Mr. Meeseeks, look at me!”

We can discuss later whether it’s good parenting or awesome parenting to let her watch Rick and Morty.

With LJ’s already considerable tanking skills, my healing skills, and dad’s pewpew, we attempted a veteran flashpoint – you know, the kind where you are supposed to be able to bring in 4 dps and bullshit your way through it.

We got Maelstrom Prison. It was not bullshit. We had a dedicated healer and tank and wiped. We looked up all the mechanics and were doing what we were supposed to be doing. Still wiped. Multiple times.

Dude, fuck that flashpoint right in the ear. If I get it again, I’m quitting and just eating the 20 minute lockout timer. As it is, we’re now afraid to do a flashpoint on the republic side in case we get it again.